Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
Mogalakwena municipality in Mokopane, Limpopo, is facing legal action over the re-instatement of a senior official who was dismissed after being found guilty on several charges. A report in the Sowetan says this follows allegations that the decision to re-instate the official was done on instruction of the ANC. The council has been dragged to the North Gauteng High Court over the reinstatement following allegations that the official was found guilty on 26 different charges. The papers filed with the court by Mahwelereng civic leader Piet Pale show that the ANC in the Waterberg region wrote to Mayor Esther Mothibi, instructing her to convene a special council meeting to reverse the disciplinary hearing’s findings and re-instate municipal director for corporate services, Henry Thobejane. Pale seeks an order to set aside the resolution by the council to re-instate Thobejane because ‘it fails to pass the test of rationality and reasonableness’. Thobejane was charged with, among others, fraud, theft, gross dishonesty, dereliction of duties, unofficial removal of official documents and destroying official information, financial misconduct and failure to carry out lawful instructions. The hearing, chaired by Advocate AP Laka, found him guilty on all 26 charges and recommended that he be dismissed with immediate effect. – Legalbriefs
